Banned mayor Lutfur Rahman to hear result of latest appeal bid

A former mayor barred from running for office for five years after being found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices following a specialist court hearing is waiting to see whether he has won the latest stage of an appeal bid.

Lutfur Rahman, who was the directly-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in London, asked two senior judges to consider his case at a High Court hearing in London in May.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr Justice Supperstone are due to deliver a ruling on Thursday.

Lawyers representing Mr Rahman told a judge that a new appeal bid had been launched because Mr Rahman had not been prosecuted.

They said prosecutors had told Mr Rahman that he would not face criminal charges because there was ''insufficient evidence''.

Lawyers suggested that it would be wrong to allow some of Election Commissioner Richard Mawrey's findings to stand in the light of that decision not to bring criminal charges.

Mr Rahman has already failed in one attempt to challenge rulings Mr Mawrey made two years ago, following an Election Court trial in London.

Two senior judges blocked a bid to mount an appeal following a High Court hearing in London last year.

A group of four voters, headed by writer and film-maker Andy Erlam, had taken legal action against Mr Rahman, under the provisions of the Representation of The People Act, in 2015.

Lawyers for the four voters had made a series of allegations, including ''personation'' in postal voting and at polling stations, and ballot paper tampering.

Mr Rahman had said there was ''little, if any'' evidence of wrongdoing against him.

His lawyers described the group of four's claims as invention, exaggeration and ''in some cases downright deliberately false allegations''.

But Mr Mawrey made a series of findings against Mr Rahman, who was born in Bangladesh in 1965.

Mr Mawrey said evidence aired at the Election Court trial had revealed an ''alarming state of affairs'' in Tower Hamlets.

He said his ruling meant that the 2014 Tower Hamlets mayoral election was void.

The election was re-run and won by Labour's John Biggs.